Pyramid Saimira acquires UK-based Aurona Technologies

Pyramid Saimira, World’s fastest growing Entertainment Group, has announced its strategic acquisition of UK-based Aurona Technologies Limited, today. Pyramid Saimira has acquired a majority stake in Aurona Technologies, a leading video games and interactive entertainment software company headquartered in London. Mr. Santosh Pillai, CEO, Aurona Technologies Limited, will continue in his incumbent role and will also take over as Director, Pyramid Saimira Production Services Limited, thereby integrating the operations of both the Companies.

Speaking about the acquisition, Mr. Santosh Pillai, said, “The entertainment industry is witnessing large scale integration, especially with reference to graphics, animation, gaming and characterisations, across the globe. Our alignment with the Pyramid Saimira Group, which is actively heading towards horizontal and vertical integration, is indeed a major milestone in this sector.”

Speaking about the acquisition, Mr. P. S. Saminathan, Managing Director, Pyramid Saimira Group, said, “"We are extremely happy to announce this strategic acquisition of Aurona Technologies Limited. This marks the entry of Pyramid Saimira in the high-growth, high-margin animation & gaming Industry. Since our group has access to a huge content library, we will be able to cross-exploit the content properties. Further we are focused on creating a world class vertical on post production / animation / gaming and this acquisition brings not only the existing knowledge base and customer base, but more importantly, high quality management bandwidth, with international exposure.”

Mr. N. Narayanan, Director, Pyramid Saimira Group, welcomed the employees of Aurona Technologies into the Pyramid Saimira family, which has now crossed more than 15000 across the globe. “This acquisition is in keeping with our vision at Pyramid Saimira to be the world’s leading entertainment company. This acquisition also marks our entry into the European market, given that there is a lot of potential and synergy there for all the businesses we are involved in. With this, Pyramid Saimira Group is present in 3 continents.”

Aurona Technologies Limited has a development centre in Hyderabad and also has a representative office in Los Angeles. The Company delivers full game development from India for platforms such as Sony Playstation 2 console, Nintendo DS and PC. Aurona has progressively moved up the value chain, and has built up the know-how and potential IPs in Racing, Lifestyle and First Person Shooter gaming that can be leveraged internationally and in India. The Company owns the IP on a location-based wireless social networking community and also owns IP on a portfolio of six mobile games.

Keynote India Capital Market acted as advisors to Pyramid Saimira in concluding the acquisition. Elara Capital Plc London acted as advisors to Aurona Technologies.

About Pyramid Saimira Group:

Pyramid Saimira Group operates in over 4 countries. It is a holistic Indian Multinational Entertainment Company. It is present in film exhibition, film distribution, film production, TV content production, advertisement, media, Food & Beverages etc. It has around eight group companies namely, Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd., Pyramid Saimira Productions International Limited, Pyramid Saimira Theatre Chain Malaysia., Sdn Bhd, Pyramid Saimira Entertainment Limited, Singapore, Pyramid Saimira Entertainment America, Inc., Saimira Realty Private Limited, Pyramid Saimira production services limited & Dimples Cine Advertising Private Limited.

Its group holding Company, Pyramid Saimira Theatre Limited, is publicly listed in National Stock Exchange (NSE: PSTL) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE: 532791).

In the exhibition sector, it has over 48 multiplexes with 800 screens across India, Malaysia, Singapore and North America. By 2010, the Group plans to operate 175 multiplexes with 2,000 screens in India alone. By its own estimates, Pyramid Saimira ranks as the world’s third largest cinema operator, based on its number of seats and admissions with nearly 4,35,477 seats as of January 2008.

More information is available at www.pstl.in

About Aurona Technologies:

Aurona Technologies is a provider of outsourced product development services to the interactive technology industry. The company, headquartered in London, is engaged in providing development services to game publishers, Hollywood studios, media companies and corporate enterprises.

Aurona provides product development solutions cost effectively by leveraging the company’s state-of-the-art development centre in India. The games division at Aurona develops console, PC, handheld and online games for clients. The division’s capabilities are in game design, game programming and game art. The entertainment solutions division designs and builds content distribution platforms for several leading entertainment companies in the world. The enterprise solutions division builds bespoke solutions in software and eLearning to corporations ranging from financial institutions to pharmaceutical companies.

By employing rigorous processes and quality standards Aurona provides best-in-class product development solutions to its clients.